Best Word and Music Mix

Chamber Music Plus, Southwest

Staff Pick

After a couple of successful decades in Connecticut, cellist Harry Clark and pianist Sanda Schuldmann transplanted their Chamber Music Plus series to Tucson, where Clark grew up. At each show, a noted veteran personality (Lynne Redgrave, Theodore Bikel, Michael Learned) portrays a figure close to a major classical musician (Bach's second wife, Mendelssohn's brother, Mozart's sister), reading a script by Clark, and the two musicians give exquisite performances (sometimes better than the celebrities' readings) of music related to the character onstage. It's not an entirely new concept to Tucson-in the 1990s, Invisible Theatre brought in actor-musicians who did something similar for Paganini and Teresa Carreño-but it's consistent, diverse, engaging and an appealing way to add biographical depth to great music by dead guys (and a few gals).